Ditch CC-overload and implement these rules instead.
Sharon Peterson, the secretarial manager of a law firm, received an email from a junior partner asking her who would be covering his desk that day. She responded courteously, but the attorney was displeased. To add emphasis to his message, he CC’d, as she later told me, “everyone and his brother,” including the partners for whom the firm was named. She again responded politely. Soon, she received an email from one of the name partners who’d been copied on the email. He wrote, “He was kind of snippy to you, wasn’t he?” By CC’ing the world, the junior partner exposed himself to criticism from a superior.
We all use the CC–carbon copy or courtesy copy–function to keep others in the loop and add transparency. As helpful as the CC field can be, it has a downside, as illustrated by the above story. We’ll never know why the junior partner CC’d everyone about his dissatisfaction. What we do know is that by using the CC function to handle what should have been a one-on-one interaction, he wasted his colleagues’ time and created negative feelings among some of his readers.
Downsides of Over-Using CC
Like any tool, CC can be misused. When people rely too heavily on using this field, unintended consequences might pop up, including:
- Information overload: Most people are frazzled by their overflowing inboxes. When you CC everyone on every email, readers may start ignoring your messages. Worse yet, they may miss a genuinely important message if their inbox is too crowded with unnecessarily CC’d email
- Dilution of responsibility: If you CC five people with the message, “Can someone handle this?” It’s likely that every person will think someone else is taking care of the job. Instead, send your email to the person who is supposed to act.
- Serpentine email threads: Critical information may get buried when people’s inboxes are overloaded with needless CCs. In addition, team members may find it daunting to wade through a long email chain; in trying to digest a giant email thread, they may lose track of important details.
- Annoyance and disengagement: If someone is constantly being CCed on emails that do not pertain to their role it may lead them to disengage or start ignoring those emails altogether. And you don’t want that.
To avoid lapsing into CC overload, follow these principles:
When to Use CC
- Courtesy: If your boss or team member requests that you CC them, do so.
- Information sharing: Use CC when you need to share info with someone who isn’t the main recipient but should be in the know.
- Paper trail: CC can be your digital trail when you need to document a conversation for later reference or legal purposes.
- Teamwork: CC is helpful for collaboration when multiple players need to team up on a project or task. If a teammate is on vacation and has asked you to cover their work, CC them on emails related to their projects.
How to Tame the CC Habit
If you have a style guide for your company, consider including a company-wide policy on the use of TO, CC, and BCC. Make it clear that if action is required, the email should be addressed TO the recipient. CCs are for “for your information” messages that do not need a reply or action. BCC is for informational blasts in which the email addresses of all recipients should not be shown. Bear in mind that if you include someone in a BCC email and they hit reply all, then the whole list will see their name.
Use CC for its primary purpose: To share necessary information with people who need not reply to the email. If you’re tempted to use CC outside this boundary, consider how you feel when half the emails in your Inbox are CCs that do not interest you. Follow the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and watch your own Inbox shrink.